Fofana has been ever-present in the Premier League this season but was forced off against Aston Villa on the hour, which Maresca said post-match was a hamstring problem.

The Blues head coach was asked about Fofana on Tuesday morning during his press conference looking ahead to Wednesday's trip to Southampton.

He replied: ‘We don’t have any update at the moment because it happened two days ago. We need to wait a little bit and hopefully we can get some news in the next days. For sure he will be out for the next weeks.’

The Italian was also asked about our captain Reece James, to which he added: ‘It’s the same situation more or less. He is getting better but it’s still weeks to come back.’

Fofana was replaced by Benoit Badiashile at Villa on Sunday and the Frenchman impressed when he started at Leicester City the week before.

Tosin Adarabioyo has also played well in Premier League games at Liverpool and West Ham United this season, while Axel Disasi is another option at centre-back, even though he has played more frequently at right-back during the 2024/25 campaign.

Maresca was asked if Badiashile would start in place of Fofana at Southampton.

‘It depends a little bit on the game plan,' Maresca responded. 'Benoit could be one of the solutions but we have Tosin and Axel, different players who can play there. For sure, it’s a big loss because Wes was doing fantastic in every game, but we need to accept and find different solutions.’